EPILOGUE: DON'T RUSH IT

  GARLAND HEIGHTS—DECEMBER 11th, 1992 | MORNING

  ?

  Cameron rubbed his shoulder. He stared along the single narrow street just outside of Allure Artificery.

  Behind him, the shop looked good as new, and just in the nick of time. The Department of Risk Assessment and Restoration had dispatched some city workers to fix the shattered glass of her storefront window display, and she received a handsome check to compensate her for both Tania’s tomfoolery with Arthur and the later incident involving Dean Dresker.

  Apparently, she’d very nearly burned down her entire shop trapping him in her back room, smothering him between two sigilmasoned doors and a blanket of smoke that left him incapacitated by the time the COA arrived. She claimed that it was a wonderful combination of luck and thinking smarter, not harder, that saved both her and Janice the day of the raid. Cameron couldn’t find any reason to disagree with that take.

  His gray eyes steeled along the street, where only a few weeks ago, Constable Heathcliff and Constable Briggs had been put to rest trying to keep Esme and Janice safe. He didn't know them all that well, and he didn’t dwell on their deaths for much longer than that, his mind wandering elsewhere—somewhere between the remnant fog in and the snow that pattered down along his beige denim jacket.

  Given the weather, he’d opted to zip it up all the way. Esme had lent him a black scarf, which only partially helped. His buzz cut had grown out a bit. His short raven-black hair didn’t do much in the way of warming him. Both of his ears were red and irritated by the nipping temperatures, his half-ear even more so.

  Worse was the remnant pain in his arm. He’d been discharged only a few hours ago, much to Dr. Voinovich’s dismay. She insisted that he stay another week, but between the shitty hospital food at Garland Heights General and the brief tastes of freedom he’d had during that mess of a trial, the idea of putting on that damn hospital gown again rubbed him the wrong way.

  She’d prescribed him a diluted dosage of pasteurized demon blood to be taken once a day for the next week. Cameron dumped them down the drain at Leroy’s apartment as soon as they got back—even diluted, he couldn't stand that pungent taste, and minus all of the new scars along his body, he felt fine.

  Mostly fine, at least. The cast Dr. Voinovich had gone through the effort to explain to him as nothing short of a miracle, but even so, the remnant damage of the surgeries he’d endured introduced a special kind of soreness, a subtle burning, that would take longer to remedy. He grit his teeth in apprehension thinking about the next time he’d need to make use of Armisthor’s Ivoryworks, which was all but guaranteed.

  A single car passed through the street with its headlights on.

  Cameron squinted and covered his face. Behind him, he heard the cast-iron doorbell ring, and somehow, through the low buzzing of his half-ear, heard Leroy arguing with Esme. He only heard bits and pieces, but he didn’t need to hear all of it to know what they were talking about. Ever since the trial had ended, Esme had been insistent on Leroy going after Captain Holmes—at one point she said she’d even write the arbitration note with a hefty sum attached, only for Leroy to insist that he’d do it pro-bono. They hadn’t made any headway, not yet. It was too soon, and everyone was still licking their wounds.

  Cameron glanced over his shoulder to see who had exited.

  Tania had her black cap on, her long sleeved white thermal, and her black cargo pants. The cold didn’t seem to bother her, not one bit. Evidently, lycans ran hot. She had a duffle bag strung across her shoulder.

  “Good haul?” Cameron asked.

  As Tania neared, Guts shook inside the sprite cage attached to Cameron’s belt loop.

  “Clothes, mostly,” Tania said. “Courtesy of Esme. Pretty sure Janice threw in some toiletries and some food too—haven’t checked.”

  “Something to get you started, at least,” Cameron muttered.

  “Got a check from the Commonwealth, too,” Tania said with a toothy half-smile. “Supposedly, it’s a portion of whatever assets they seized from Bluestein Philterworks. Still pennies compared to whatever they probably stuffed their coffers with, though. That greaseball Hhaledi called it restitution for damages incurred, or something.”

  “How much?” Cameron asked, eyebrows raised.

  “Enough to put down a deposit on my own place and have a bit of a cushion, savings wise,” Tania said. “Bunch of bastards.”

  “Doesn’t sound like a bad deal, Tania. What’s got you sour?” Cameron said.

  “You need me to spell it out for you?” Tania said, sneering.

  Cameron widened his eyes ever so slightly and nodded towards her, waiting for her to continue.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Bluestein held me captive for however many weeks, pumped me up full of sedatives, and used me as a glorified fucking blood bag. Doesn’t matter how much they gave me, cause’ whatever they gave me isn’t enough. You understand?”

  Cameron brought his hands to his mouth, cupped them, and blew his breath into them. It didn’t help much. His fingers were still cold.

  “Maybe not, but if you can remember, Tania, you killed the guy who put you there.”

  Tania squinted, an angry confusion spreading across her features.

  Cameron grimaced. “Leroy didn’t tell you?”

  Tania’s silence persisted.

  Of course he didn’t. Cameron exhaled. “That blue-skinned guy you laid out during the raid? Part man, part monster, part botched experiment? That was Emilio la Cerva. I didn’t know either, not at first. Leroy had to tell me. He’s—”

  “He was the overseer of the processing plant, yeah,” Tania said. The anger along her features softened; she seemed more content. “Guess that’s one name off my list.”

  “Tania, look—”

  “Know what you’re going to say, Cam. Save it. You stay in your lane, I’ll stay in mine, and you can tell Leroy to fuck right off. Don’t want his help, don’t need it, and frankly, Cam, I don’t want anything to do with that dickhead after the stunt he pulled with Arthur,” she said.

  “Not what I was going to say, Tania,” Cameron said sharply. “Listen for a second.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest.

  “You can’t do it alone.”

  “I’m not. Built a pack—”

  “No, Tania, you didn’t,” Cameron said, shaking his head. “You built a damn horde. Whatever garou weren’t harvested by Bluestein for ether have been killed off by the Order of the Wardens by now. And yeah, I’ll admit it, I don’t know shit about lycans, but I know that those garou were all instinct. They wouldn’t have listened to you, right?”

  Tania set her jaw.

  “So what was your plan? Lead a small army of stray dogs to the Chaptermaster? Tania, even if you had managed to do that, they would’ve been slaughtered by the Order the moment they left the Pines. You—”

  “You done, Cam?” Tania asked, head slightly tilted, eyes narrowed.

  Cameron opened and closed his mouth.

  “I mean, who the fuck are you?” Tania said, dropping her duffle bag and shoving him a bit. Guts bounced along the inside of his sprite cage.

  “Tania—”

  “No, Cam, really,” she asked, shoving him again. “I’ll tell you what you are, and then, asshole, I’ll tell you what you aren’t. You’re the guy that brought me out of that processing plant. Sure, fine. I’ll grant you that. But you aren’t the guy who is going to tell me how I’m going to get what I’m owed. Not for one fucking second, okay? I’ll figure it out.”

  “Will you?” Cameron asked, eyes boring into hers. He shoved her back. “Don’t think so. Leroy, he lied to you from the get go. Lied through his fucking teeth. Whatever favor he promised to you about helping you get back at the Order, he wasn’t ever going to deliver on that. And as much as I want to, I can’t either—so listen to what I’m about to tell you.”

  Cameron stepped closer to her, and pointed a finger right into her sternum.

  “You find people,” he continued. “And you get them in your corner. Strong people, Tania. Capable people. As many as you can. And don’t fucking rush it, alright? Leroy and I, we’ve rushed into more things than I can count, and every single time, it ends up screwing us, or the people around us. You go against the Order, you go against the Exorcist Association, and you go against the Vatican. This isn’t something that you just walk back into, Tania, and it isn’t something that you do today, tomorrow, or even weeks from now. I’m telling you this ‘cause I’ve had to make my peace with it, too. ‘Cause you and I, we both want to make somebody pay for what they’ve done to us. What they’ve… what they’ve done to others, even. You understand?”

  Tania’s instinct was to glare daggers into Cameron. But with each word that he uttered, her gaze softened ever so slightly, and her amber eyes oscillated between some level of respect or recognition. Cameron couldn’t tell. Outside of the fury that seemed to line every other word that left Tania’s mouth, he’d always had a difficult time reading her, and he didn’t imagine he’d ever get any better at that, even if he had the chance to.

  “Years, Tania,” Cameron said, his voice drying out, falling victim to the cold. “You’ll only ever get one shot. Don’t fuck it up by getting after it before you’re ready.”

  Tania crouched down and picked up the strap attached to her duffle bag.

  “Yeah,” she said.

  She turned to walk away.

  Cameron stepped forward and grabbed her wrist. For a second, he felt like his heart skipped a beat, and he couldn’t understand why. Around him, the world was cold. Colder than cold. Frost covered every window of every building, and every breath that left his nose robbed him of the heat he needed. But when Tania glanced over her shoulder, he felt warm.

  He was met with a scowl, at first, framed by some level of bravado that still felt standoffish. It made Cameron feel stupid. Like he’d made a mistake, acting on some instinct he didn’t even know he had. Then she smiled.

  She wrapped a hand around the back of his head, stepped closer to him, and kissed him on the cheek.

  “Good luck, Cam,” she said. “And maybe keep your hair the way it is now. Looks better than whatever skinhead thing you’ve had going on.”

  Cameron’s grasp around her wrist loosened, and with it, her hand around the back of his head.

  She crossed the street. He lost sight of her between the fog and the snow.

  right. Now, what exactly do I mean by that? I want to take the time to really flesh out the world, the general plotting details, and screw my head on a bit tighter to my shoulders so that I can deliver the highest quality of writing that I am capable of producing.

  In addition to writing the story itself, I've been working on my very own website to function as a hub for the Brinehaven universe. I've been working on it in the background for a few months now, but it will take me a bit more time to complete it. There are a ton of world building, in-universe documents surrounding different factions, magic systems, and so on.

  Brinehaven will be going on a brief hiatus.

  I expect to begin posting, hopefully, by March 27th. That's about 2-3 months of no main line story content (however, I will be posting 1-2 Rituals chapters during this hiatus!)

  On Monday, I will be releasing my bonus project/recap chapter as well. I'm keeping my lips sealed on what it is exactly, but I'm very excited to share it with you all.

  On that bittersweet note, if you guys have enjoyed Cameron and Leroy's journey so far, I would greatly appreciate a review or rating.

  It is my dream to turn Brinehaven into a life long project and an expansive shared universe filled with stories from all corners of the city and the Commonwealth of Brinehaven at large, and reviews here on RoyalRoad go a long way in terms of getting this story some more visibility. I have so many ideas for projects, spin-offs, and continuations, and I am truly excited to keep showing you guys more of this world, more of its characters, and more of their gritty misadventures. The algorithm is cutthroat, and every bit of help is truly appreciated.

  Much love to all of you who have made it this far, and many thanks to those of you who are maybe getting around to reading this a bit after it's been posted!

  CAMERON KESSLER

  TANIA ACKERMAN

  Enjoying BRINEHAVEN? If so, please a review or a rating, it helps this story gain much needed visibility!